At night, the heart of the shattered city writhes mutely.
When the clouds part, silvery moonlight falls on still streets, casting faint outlines across the ruins. Close to ground zero, stone and concrete bear other, more permanent shadows. They are the last evidence of the warhead's first (if only by milliseconds) victims, vaporized where they stood, their silhouettes instantly and indelibly bleached onto walls, streets, sidewalks, benches.
Occasionally, they reach out.
Some of them have yet to realize they're dead. Others remain trapped in their last moments. It's hard to say which are more dangerous.
Description:
Blast shadows are the ghosts of people vaporized by nuclear blasts, anchored to the physical location of the shadows the blast etched on their surroundings. When undisturbed, they appear as faintly-glimpsed distortions and hints of motion - occasional brief flickers of three-dimensional existence extruding from two-dimensional stasis. Rarely does the activity last long enough for an observer to alert a second witness. If a character comes in direct physical contact with a blast shadow, however, there's a chance that the intersection of material and immaterial existence is enough to render the shadow briefly lucid (if not sane). The experience is survivable - but that's about all that can be said for it.
Blast shadows are divided into two types: unaware and aware. Both are trapped in cyclic fugue states. The difference is in what they're experiencing. Unaware blast shadows don't know they're dead; they permanently re-experience the last few minutes of their lives. Aware blast shadows know exactly what's happened to them, and this knowledge allows them to permanently replay the sensation of being vaporized by a hundred-kiloton nuclear explosion. A character who makes contact with either type is drawn into the shadow's existence. There is no way to tell the two types apart.
Activity:
None to speak of. Blast shadows are bound to narrowly-defined physical locations and are not conscious of their surroundings.
Mechanics (Unaware):
When a character touches an unaware blast shadow, make a RES check: TN -7 if the contact was accidental, TN -4 if it was deliberate. With success, the shadow becomes active for a split-second, throwing the character into involuntary psychic contact with it. This draws the character's mind into the endless loop of the shadow's last living moments.
The outward effects of this mimic catatonia: the character immediately falls unconscious and collapses into a fetal curl, staying in touch with the physical boundary of the shadow. With a successful RES (TN -2) check, the character eventually emerges after a (10 - margin of success) hours. With failure, he stays in the dreamscape until he dies of dehydration. Removing the character from physical contact with the shadow also triggers emergence.
Emergence is a significant mental trauma that is considered psychological damage (TN -4). The character's perceptions are radically shifted and the realization of involuntary psychic communion is less than pleasant. Staying in the dreamscape doesn't cause any psychological damage, but the character will die eventually.
At the GM's discretion, a character may recall details of the dreamscape with a successful COG check.
Mechanics (Aware):
When a character touches an aware blast shadow, make a RES check: TN -8 if the contact was accidental, TN -5 if it was deliberate. With success, the shadow becomes active for a split-second, throwing the character into involuntary psychic contact with it. The character receives a single flash of the sensation of being obliterated by a nuclear explosion - and the shadow attempts to escape its own tortured existence by hurling itself into the character's mind.
The death flashback is psychological damage (TN -3). If the character accrues Stress as a result of this, the shadow has an opening through which to escape. The GM rolls 2d10L to determine the shadow's RES. The player and GM then make an opposed RES check. If the shadow wins, the character gains a rider. The shadow's margin of success determines the degree of lucidity and control it has: MoS 1 indicates occasional flashes of memory, MoS 2 provides brief exchanges of internal dialogue, MoS 3 allows occasional motor control, MoS 4 enables the shadow to speak through the character's mouth at times of great stress, and MoS 5+ indicates full-blown possession. When the blast shadow is influencing the character, sharp-eyed observers - AWA (TN -4) - may see a second shadow superimposed over the character's own.
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